The Chamber's Warning
by kittylitious
Summary: Joren of Stonemountain gets a warning about the Chamber of Ordeal from the Chamber itself. What is Joren missing that will help him pass? And who could help him? KJ. Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce's.**

**I'm sorry to any of you who read my two other stories in progress. I have chapters done, but on a broken computer.**

** Anyway... here's the beggining of my new story.**

_"Joren of Stonemountain. You should not have taken this ordeal. Even after Vinson of __Genlith's out take on his ordeal, you still come even though I'm sure you have been told the consequences by the few people you may hold close." _

_A voice went on to lecture Joren of all his faults, crimes, and mistakes he has made over the years. Joren just stood there, staring into space, with a mixed feeling of anger and regret._

_How dare the Chamber of Ordeal decide what was wrong for him to do and what was right. He had already been told this by his knight master and father that the Chamber of Ordeal would destroy him. They never said it would annoy him. Maybe if they would of told him that, he wouldn't be here._

_'No,' Joren thought to himself, 'I would have been to stubborn to chicken out.' With that last thought, he tuned back into the conversation._

_"Not only have you been mean and cruel, but you there is no trace of love through your soul. No love from your teachers, friends, or even your parents. You also have no love passed down to anyone. Your heart may not be full of love, but it's full of greed and hatred. You have grown to be spoiled, getting what ever you want through your looks, fief, and money."_

_Joren was looking slightly annoyed now. He didn't care about love, and he definitely didn't want to hear about it. For him, who cares about love? They were in a life full of war. Love dies once the body who harvests it does._

_"I shouldn't be doing this, but you have one more chance to take on the Chamber of Ordeal, and pass. I wouldn't be doing this if the person I need most right now needs your love to fulfill a prophecy. When you wake up, remember that if you want to pass this Ordeal, you need to learn to love."_

Joren woke up with a start. He rubbed his head, trying to catch the details from last night's nightmare. With a groan, he laid back in bed in deep thought. He was taking the Chamber of Ordeal in one month, and has just been warned of it's danger.

Not only that, his friend Vinson Of Genlith wouldn't make it. 'Who cares,' Joren sneered, 'the stupid chamber is making me find love when I don't even know where it is.' Not knowing that it was a stupid thought, Joren sunk back into sleep, hoping for more information on his 'love'.

One thing he didn't know was that a certain female squire had the same dream, except with a different reaction. Keladry of Mindelan woke up with the thoughts of how to save Joren. Sure, he was all the things the chamber said he was, but Kel was a knight in training and had to uphold her duty to save those she could save.

Well, she didn't know if she _could _save Joren, but she could try. She already loves all of her friends, and even some people she just met. She was positive she could make room in her heart for Joren, and hopefully his for hers.

Kel got up, done with thinking about that for awhile, and began her morning glaive practices. Kel finished after a few pattern dances, and changes into her squire clothes. She ran a brush through her hair, untangled knotts that formed over the night, when an annoyed knock sounded at the door.

On her way to answer the door, she heard a familar voice drawl, "Keeel! Hurry up. I'm hungry!" Just to annoy him further, Kel slowly opened the door, revealing her best friend Neal, inch by inch inch.

Showing that her attempts to annoy him worked, Neal pulled Kel through the finally open door and shut the door behind her. He pulled her by the hand to the mess hall where they got there trays full of food, with extra vegetables for Neal.

When they were going to sit at a table with all their regular friends, Kel spotted a strikingly blond head, and turned to see the object of her dream, Joren. Noting that he was sitting alone at a table, Kel changed direction and went to sit by him.

The whole mess hall went quite when Joren looked up to see who was stupid enough to sit by him. Seeing The Lump, he sneered and moved to get up when she said, "Wait, I want to talk to you."

Curious of what she wanted to say, he stayed put in his seat, attention focused on her. Once she figured out he wasn't going to retort or leave at her statement, she said, "I'm sorry if you think females aren't suppose to be anything other than the perfect wife, but I was hoping we could start over." She took a quick breath, and continued, "I would really like to get to know you better, and maybe even become friends."

Kel held out her hand, hoping Joren would accept her. e was reluctant at first, then thought better of it. He shook hands with her, giving her the slightest smile. 'Maybe she could help me,' he thought, 'even if she is The Lump'.

At first, Kel started asking about his family, which was a subject he didn't favor much. So, she switched tactics. Asking him questions ranging from his favorite weapon to his journeys as a squire.

Growing bored of just asking and not being asked anything, Kel suggested, "Since I've been asking all the questions, how about you ask me something. Anything."

"Have you ever been in love?" Joren was shocked that he asked that, and guessed that she wouldn't answer.

Instead, Kel bit her lip and sighed, looking over at her friends' table to see them all whispering to each other and two were staring at her. The ones staring at her were her best friend and ex-lover. Meeting the latter's eyes, she quickly turned away and answered Joren's question. "I thought I was once."

Even though he saw where her gaze ended upon at the other table, and can tell there's hurt written in her eyes about it, he asked, "With who?"

Kel answered back without blinking once, "Cleon."

Joren had no doubt before that Cleon had liked her, but didn't seem to see why they wouldn't be together anymore. "So, you aren't with him anymore?"

A little bit suspicious of Joren's curiosity of her 'love life', she replied, "No. He had to gt married to a daughter of some rich fief and we couldn't be together anymore." She put her head down, replaying the day they had ended it.

The next thing Joren did was the sweetest thing he has ever done in his life. He reached his hand out and tilted her head up so there eyes were locked, and said, "Too bad for Cleon. He doesn't know what he's missing."

Before Kel could respond with 'And you would?', Joren had already exited the hall, leaving Kel to be surrounded and questioned by her squire friends.

A/N Please review. If you don't know what to rewiew, at least let me know if you think the characters are in character or OOC. Thank you for reading, I'll try to update soon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce's.**

**A/N If you didn't already figure this out, Kel is a squire and at the palace.**

**Now, time to reply to my reviews...**

**jayley: **Thanks for the review. I'm trying to work on the oc stuff, and I hope this new chapter will be more in character.  
**Evilstrawberry: **Thank you for the review. I took your advice and I tried to put them more in character. I agree that a well written Joren is the best, and I hope that I am good enough to keep him in character.  
**Abyssgirl: **Thanks for the review and the advice. I'm trying out the semi-colons just for you.  
**Aly-Of-Tortall13:** Thanks. That's a pretty high compliment if you usually don't like them. I use to not like them, and now they're one of my fav pairings.  
**xxTunstall Chickxx:** Thank you. I hope this update is soon enough, although my others won't be this soon. I'm not very good with my commas, but I'll try harder.  
**Laura:** Your welcome. I'll try my best to continue it. I probably will, but in due time.

* * *

The main question her friends bombarded Kel with was, "Did he hurt you?" Kel told them the truth. No. Kel was pretending to think about the questions they asked her, but truthfully she was just waiting for them to leave her be so she could think alone.

Finally, after an half-an-hour of Kel trying to reassure everyone that nothing bad happened, Kel headed to the practice courts with her yamani bow. She mainly uses it when she needs to think about something without hurting herself with a glaive or sword.

Positioned and ready to shoot, the thoughts began. 'Why did he want to know if I've ever been in love? Did he have the dream too? Even if he did, why would he accept my friendship?'

Kel was distracted from her thoughts by a call behind her, "Mind if I try?" Kel swiveled around to see the object of her thoughts; Joren. 'What is he up to? This isn't the Joren who bullied me as a page, and kidnapped my maid. Maybe it's all a trick?'

Kel, again, was in deep thought so Joren repeated his question. This time, Kel answered. "I don't mind at all, but it's different than a Tortall bow."

"Then you can teach me." Joren said quite easily, as if they haven't only been friends for about one hour. 'All I have to do' he thought, 'is get her trust and love, and I could pass the Chamber of Ordeal.'

Kel was reluctant to teach him, but did it anyway. She found out he was a quick learner and he hit the target every time after he got use to it. Kel was starting to believe that Joren could actually change, when he dropped the bow and shoved her hard on the ground.

Too shocked to do anything, Kel just sat there; staring up at him. "Looks like the Lump can't handle a little push." Joren said in a voice she hadn't heard in awhile.

The next thing Kel knew was her face in the dirt from a hard kick on her back. She looked up from the ground to see Garvey of Runnerspring standing over her with a smirk on his face. "Yeah. She doesn't deserve to be a knight. Let alone a squire."

When Garvey was done talking, Kel had already gotten up and was walking away with her bow. She only turned back once to dodge and trip Garvey, who was trying to attack her from behind. She gave a disgusted look to both Joren, who was standing behind Garvey with a sneer on his face, and Garvey before heading back to her rooms.

Kel couldn't believe the change in Joren. Well, actually she could, but that doesn't mean she wanted to. She was just begging to accept him, but then his friend shows up and he starts acting like a pompous jerk.

Kel had entered her room, and had just finished putting her yamani bow away when the lunch bell rang. Having to go to lunch, due to nothing else to do because her knight master thought he was being generous by giving her the day off, Kel made her way down to the mess hall.

To her relief, Joren wasn't there. She sat next to Neal and Merric; across from Cleon. Reminding Neal to eat his vegetables, and filling up most of her afternoon with the three squires at the practice courts were pretty much the only thing Kel felt like talking about at lunch.

Neal and Merric had tried to talk to her about the Joren incident, but she pretended she couldn't hear them. It worked, but Neal started poking her to see if she was still awake. She threatened him with her glaive if he didn't stop, and she wasn't bothered about it for the rest of the meal.

Kel didn't see Joren until supper that night, and even then she ignored him like he wasn't there. She knew he wouldn't approach her when his friends were near. That would be embarrassing for him to be caught talking to her as if she wasn't his enemy who didn't belong here.

'He decides to treat me like he use to,' Kel thought, 'so I'll return the favor.' She chatted easily with her friends; though some could tell she was distracted.

After the meal, Kel was heading back to her room when she felt a hand on her room. Using her instincts, she pulled the hand off of her and flipped the person onto the ground. Seeing Joren on the ground, she smirked and walked away.

He decided to catch up with her to see what her problem was. 'She can't hate me already,' He thought, 'it's not like I kidnapped her stupid maid again.' Instead of touching her like he did last time, he walked in front of her; blocking her way.

"I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to upset you." Joren said it like he didn't care. Probably because he didn't.

Kel actually _glared _at him before replying, "I don't accept your apology, so please move out of my way so I can continue to my room."

Joren didn't move out of her way, but took a step closer so their bodies were centimeters apart. "Do you want to talk about it?" He said in the huskiest voice he could manage.

Joren got everything he wanted. So when he leaned down to kiss Kel; he expected to get one. When their lips were close enough to feel each others breathes, Kel placed her hands on Joren's chest and said, "No." She pushed him away and ran to her room; locking the door behind her.

Kel lied down on her bed; thinking about Joren for what felt like the hundredth time that day. 'Should I trust? Does he deserve my trust? Or will he just abuse it again?'

She didn't know whether she should help with the 'love thing', or make him suffer it alone. She was starting to get head ache just thinking about it, so in the end she chose to sleep on it.


End file.
